1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to handcraft sheet materials. More particularly, the invention relates to needlwork materials having a uniform pattern of apertures forming a symmetrical gridwork intended to receive needle-directed yarn or thread for the purpose of creating a stitchery design thereon and to other flexible handcraft sheet materials including paper, plastics, leather, wood and fabrics. The present invention further relates to materials of the type described which are adaptable for receiving printed designs, patterns, photographs and instructional information and to methods of printing designs, patterns, photographs and instructional information thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
a. Needlework. Embroidery is the art or process of forming decorative designs with hand needlework. When an open-mesh canvas or apertured sheet material having a uniform gridwork is used to receive the needlework, the art form is characterized as "needlepoint" or "canvas embroidery." Needlepoint is distinguished from other forms of embroidery, such as crewel embroidery, in that in needlepoint the stitches are formed by passing needle-directed yarn or thread through openings in the canvas or apertured sheet material in simple even stitches across counted threads or between counted apertures.
Needlepoint canvas, in its simplest form, is comprised of evenly spaced, durable wrap and woof threads woven into a textile in which the holes or apertures between the threads are commonly equal to or larger in size than the threads themselves. The canvas threads are usually composed of cotton or linen fibers, particuarly where the gauge of the canvas (number of threads per inch) falls within the popular range of 10 to 18. Fine gauge needlepoint fabrics normally have 18 to 40 threads per inch and are woven from silk or synthetic fiber threads in addition to cotton and linen fiber threads. Textile and fabric materials, manufactured for use as needlepoint canvas, are usually sold by their manufacturers in "bolt" (roll) units having a minimum of 5-10 yards of material.
The principal types of needlepoint canvases in use today are designated "mono-" meaning one thread on each side of each hole or aperture and "double" meaning two threads on each side of each major hole or aperture. There are two basic forms of mono- canvases, i.e., "mono-floating" and mono-interlock." With mono-floating canvas the warp and weft (woof) threads are merely woven over and under each other whereas with mono-interlock canvas the warp threads (in fact) comprise two smaller (weaker) threads that are knotted or twisted at each over and under crossing of weft threads. Because of the weaving method, mono-floating canvases are subject to greater slippage between threads so that the mesh pattern of the canvas easily becomes distorted, i.e., the holes or apertures become of non-uniform size and configuration with repeated folding and needlepoint working of the canvas.
Double thread needlepoint canvas (also referred to as "Due" or "Penelope") is woven with the warp and woof threads that form the principal holes or apertures of the canvas each comprised of a pair of slightly spaced threads which form small apertures. This weave of needlepoint canvas is useful when it is desired to use half stitches or where petit point stitches (small) and gross point stitches (large) are to be worked on the same canvas. Other fine woven textiles used in the needlework arts include cloths woven so that the individual threads are thicker than the holes between them, "even weave" cloth and "Congress" cloth.
From time to time other forms of needlepoint canvas have been manufactured. For example, molded plastic, large gauge (4-15) mesh sheets, with a surface texture simulating the warp and woof thread configuration of woven needlepoint canvas, or with a smooth surface texture, have been made. Also, perforated paper sheets have been made and proposed for needlepoint projects of relatively small size where the resulting needlework is to be framed as a decorative item or where a free-form craft item is to by created using needlework techniques, i.e., book markers, greeting cards, etc.
Mono-floating and mono-interlock needlepoint canvases have continued to be used for most stitchery applications despite their many shortcomings and the problems they create for the needlepoint artisan. The principal shortcomings and problems include edge raveling, canvas distortion, aperture irregularity and roughness, and thread shifting. Great care must be taken when cutting bolt or yardage canvas into smaller popular use size canvas pieces to make crtain that each cutting course or line follows a single line of canvas holes or apertures, i.e., between warp and woof threads, so that edge raveling is minimized. Edge raveling becomes an even greater problem when the ultimate shape of the needlepoint piece is not rectangular with its edges not in parallel with warp and woof threads.
Canvas distortion, stretching, sagging, extension and creep constitute major problems to persons performing needlepoint stitchery. If one closely observes needlework canvas as needlepoint stitchery is applied, it becomes obvious that the vertical and horizontal forces applied to the canvas threads (defining each aperture in the canvas) by the yarn-guiding needle and the yarn itself (as they pass through such apertures) are unequal. Although canvas manufacturers have attempted to reduce the distortion problem through the weaving of mono-interlock canvases and by the application of sizing (stiffening) agents to the canvas threads, the problem remains. Distortion correction, after completion of the needlework piece, by straightening or "blocking" the base canvas (and the needlework it bears) must overcome many built-in failure factors. Blocking, a somewhat costly procedure, involves the stretching and straightening of the needlework to its pre-stretched size and shape.
The foregoing problems with needlepoint canvas materials have been obviated through the improved needlepoint materials described in my co-pending U.S. patent applications: Ser. No. 714,128, filed Mar. 20, 1985; Ser. No. 737,702, filed May 28, 1985; and Ser. No. 738,450, filed May 28, 1985. The needlepoint canvas materials disclosed in these applications are basically flexible, non-distortable composite laminated sheet materials comprised of a primary layer of non-elastic, open-mesh woven needlepoint fabric which has bonded to one of its faces a relative thin, non-elastic secondary mesh-stabilizing layer of sheer (semi-transparent) fabric. The primary layer is preferably a non-floating or non-interlock needlepoint canvas material. The sheer fabric secondary layer of the composite laminated needlepoint canvas material is preferably a non-woven, semi-transparent, random-spun synthetic fiber material or a sheer closely woven fabric material. The secondary layer is of such a sheerness that the holes or apertures of the canvas primary layer remain distinct to the needlepoint artisan and the secondary layer is relatively thin so that it is easily penetrated by the yarn-bearing stichery needle.
An infinite number of decorative fabrics may be formed by applying needlework techniques to needlework canvas materials. These fabrics may vary widely in stitch type, yarn tickness, yarn colors, etc. Although some needlework artisans create their own stitchery designs while sewing a fabric or create a design on pape and reproduce it on the fabric, a primary source of designs is provided in kit form with the kit containing a pattern, the yarn types and colors and an appropriate canvas material, or needlwork patterns are sold independently.
There are five principal variables associated with each needlework design, i.e., (a) stitch types, (b) stitch placement, (c) canvas grid or mesh size, (d) yarn thickness and (e) yarn color. Yarn thickness and canvas mesh size can be readily indicated by simple directions on the pattern while stitch types, stitch placement and yarn color directions are more difficult to indicate.
Where fine embroidery on linen or other fine mesh material is to be performed by the artisan, the design or pattern may be printed, drawn or painted on (or transferred to) the fabric and the artisan merely sews over the design or pattern. With needlepoint designs, stitch type variation is usually involved. Further, since the commonly used canvas types (10 to 18 mesh) are substantially air space (apertures greater than canvas thread thickness), printing of stitch type instructions is not feasible since most stitchery is directionally oriented. Also, the present-day woven canvas materials are distortable and not perfectly true in mesh or grid structure and when design printing thereon is attempted, the design frequently does not properly align with the gridwork of the canvas with the result that stitch type location is faulty. Only thread-by-thread hand painted designs are true and they are very time consuming and costly to produce.
In view of the foregoing state-of-the-art in needlework stitchery, popularly priced designs are most commonly shown on separate charts indicating the specific location of stitch types and yarn colors on a line gridwork representing the canvas gridwork. In using these charts, the needlework artisan must refer to the chart beore applying one or several more stitches. Constant backand-forth cross-reference between the chart and the needlework piece is necessary.
b. Leatherwork. Leatherwork encompasses the cutting, tooling and burning of decorative designs in leathers, tanned leathers, suede materials and a wide selection of imitation and simulated leather materials. Also, leatherwork may include handcraft design work that involves such materials in design punched or cut forms with the addition of a variety of attached media and adornments. As in the case of needlework, it is desirble to apply designs and patterns to leather and leather-like materials for their instructional utility in the performance of cutting, punching, tooling, burning, and adornment handcraft procedures and for their non-functional decorative effects.
c. Paperwork. Numerous handcraft ideas have been suggested and developed involving the use of paper, construction paper, flexible paper board and like materials. Again, designs and patterns are frequently applied to these materials in their flat, pre-crafted state as instructional information and as decorative design matter to add to the overall visual effect of the finished handcraft item.
d. Woodcraft. Thin, flexible sheets of wood, wood veneers and wood-simulated plastics have come into popular use in the handcraft arts. As with leatherwork materials, wood and wood-like materials used in handcraft projects usually require the application of decorative design and pattern instructional information for use in the performance of cutting, punching, burning and mixed-media application procedures and for adding to the visual appearance of the final craft item.
e. Plasticwork and Foils. The wide variety of flexible sheet plastic materials and foil materils in a full range of colors and tints have made such materials highly desirable for handcraft projects. Metalized plastic mosaics in flexible sheet form are, for example, being used as a craft medium for making fashion accessories including belts, necklaces, rings and pendants. The need for the imprinting of designs and handcraft patterns on these types of materials is increasing.
It is an object of the present invention to provide improved handcraft sheet materials having a print surface adaptable for receiving computer-generated printed designs, patterns, photographs and instructional information thereon.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved needlework material having a print surface on one face thereof adaptable for receiving printed needlework designs, patterns and photographs in stitchery alignment with the gridwork of such needlework material as directed by a computer.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide leather, simulated leather, paper, flexible woods and wood veneers, flexible plastic, foils, metalized plastic and like materials to be utilized as handcraft sheet materials having a print surface on one or both faces thereof adaptable for receiving printed designs, patterns, photographs and instructional information as directed by a computer.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unique method for producing handcraft sheet materials which have printed thereon detailed designs, patterns, photographs and instructional information as directed by a computer.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a unique method for producing needlework material which has printed thereon detailed embroidery, needlepoint or mixed media cross-stitch designs, patterns or photographs in geometric stitchery alignment with the symmetrical gridwork of such needlework material.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a unique method for printing designs, patterns or photographs on a wide variety of flexible sheet craft materials having a print surface on a face thereof with such designs, patterns or photographs being applied as directed by a computer.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, taken with the accompanying drawings.